It's a well known fact that animals from the Arctic to Africa have absolutely no idea what to think about robots. Taking full advantage of this phenomenon, Microdrones let one of their MD4-1000 quadrotors loose on safari in Kenya, and it set about capturing video like you've probably never seen before.
While I'm not one to spout propaganda about how robots are revolutionizing every aspect of our lives (okay, I totally am), this is an entirely new way of filming animals that's just beginning to be explored through trial and error. We're used to watching animals from afar through gigantic zoom lenses, but small flying robots offer the opportunity to get in the middle of things without causing too much of a ruckus, and this is just one of the first tentative stabs at a whole new world of footage that would do David Attenborough proud. And it's not just for animals, either: imagine flying one of these things into an erupting volcano.
It looks like these clips are part of a show that Microdrones is putting together for TBS Television Japan, but we'll make sure and let you know if it ever shows up online.
[ Microdrones ]
Evan Ackerman is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Since 2007, he has written over 6,000 articles on robotics and technology. He has a degree in Martian geology and is excellent at playing bagpipes.